Chillness + Responsibility = Gold

Hey Collegestuds and Collegebabes,

Here’s the memo: College is chill. Did I work out today? No. 

What did I do instead? I stood for a couple hours straight representing an organization at a student groups fair and socialized. Am I okay with the fact I didn’t workout? Well….

People make all sorts of excuses for not working out during the day. It’s usually the “I don’t have time” or even that they simply have no interest in working out. Now, when I say workout (I am assuming that you, my dear reader, have been following this blog and have looked at my workouts so far) I expect that you would think I mean something overly intense and something that will make you sore for the next couple of days. Well, for me sometimes my inner demons get fired up and that is exactly what a workout can be.

On other days I don’t feel completely motivated. Somedays, I simply want to do my homework (if even that), eat, nap, or chill in a friends room. I am going to be the first advocate of fitness to say “Go ahead and Fu#$ing do whatever you want!” It’s totally fine with me.

There is still a problem though. Some people take advantage of that statement and literally sit on their gluteus maximuses all day and do nothing. I am here tell you that if you feel like sitting around and doing nothing everyday then you need to rethink your priorities. If anyone tells me that my mind is more important than my body I will laugh at them. How can you have peace of mind if you are not even comfortable with your body? Everyone should strive to be the best that they can be and that includes physically being proactive in order to lead a healthy life. 

Now here’s the kicker: What if I don’t like working out like Collegestud at the University of Minnesota?

I’m a kinesiology major. I am just starting up but I can already tell you the dead obvious. This country is going in the wrong direction. People definitely know that there is a rapidly rising obesity rate which is great. The problem is that the facts are marketed and a lot of people get pulled into diet pill fads, meal replacement fads, and all sorts of fads the world over! The only kind of fad that I approve of is a workout video. Those at least cause you to engage in physical activity.

Now that we are talking about physical activity…What is physical activity? A broad answer that a Kinesiologist would say is an intentional and voluntary movement in order to accomplish a certain goal. How easy is that to do? Stop scratching your head and think about it. If all you have to do is say to make significant long period health gains is “I’m taking the stairs today” what is stopping you?

Now lets take this in a different direction. What sport do you enjoy? What scenery do you enjoy? Do you like to socialize? I played a good old game of football today with some frat guys. Ka Ching! There’s my physical activity for the day. I biked around the city or along the river and saw my favorite sights today. Ka Ching! There’s my physical activity there! I just joined a workout class or joined a running club. Ka Ching! There are other people out there who will engage in physical activity with you and it will surely elevate the experience beyond the physical sphere of existence. 

I can tell you straight up that some of my best friends reached that status within my mind because they were with me blowing off steam in the weight room or running hills endlessly during cross country practice. That’s because during the time you workout the world around you seems to pause and for a short period of time the only people in existence are you and your workout buddies. 

Ultimately, what I am preaching here is that it doesn’t matter what you do to engage in physical activity as long as it is meaningful to you. That is why I will never say in one of my post to do exactly what I do in my workouts. People are truly invited to adapt them or create their own workouts inspired by my own but in the end what people do must be something that they enjoy doing. I can also confidently tell you that there are plenty of different activities for people to partake in that it literally would be impossible for someone to hate all forms of physical activity as defined above. So, just remember that its perfectly okay to have a chill approach to personal fitness but that holding yourself accountable for it is of utmost importance as well. 

Thanks for reading this guys and be ready for a killer workout tomorrow. 

Be Strong and be at Peace